Gesture Based Image Capturing System for Vehicle

1. An image capturing system for a vehicle for capturing an image of a target area based on a predefined gesture performed by an occupant of the vehicle, the image capturing system comprising: an on-board camera disposed on a body of the vehicle and capturing an image of the target area, wherein the on-board camera has an image field-of-view within which the image is captured and the image field-of-view overlaps with the target area; a gesture capture device determining a gesture position in a three-dimensional space of a gesture performed by the occupant with respect to a reference point, wherein the gesture is the predefined gesture; an eye tracking device determining an eye position of the occupant; a processor operating as a target area determination module, wherein the target area determination module determines a target vector extending from the eye position toward the gesture position and aligns the on-board camera in accordance with the target vector, such that a first target object in the target area pointed by the target vector appears in the image taken by the on-board camera; and a memory unit storing the image captured by the on-board camera when the predefined gesture is detected, wherein the memory unit is a computer-readable medium.

2. The image capturing system of claim 1 wherein the target area determination module transmits the image to a display module of the vehicle, wherein the display module displays the image.

3. The image capturing system of claim 1 wherein the target area determination module transmits the image to a portable device via a wireless communication module disposed within the vehicle.

4. The image capturing system of claim 1 wherein the target area determination module transmits the image to a data server via a wireless communication module disposed within the vehicle.

5. The image capturing system of claim 1 wherein the gesture capture device further comprises: a gesture camera that captures movement within a space defined by a field of view of the gesture camera; and a gesture determination module that determines whether the movement captured is of the predefined gesture.

6. The image capturing system of claim 1 wherein the eye tracking device determines a viewpoint of the occupant and determines the eye position based on the viewpoint.

7. The image capturing system of claim 6 wherein the eye tracking device determines the eye position as a position of a right eye when the viewpoint is from the right eye, determines the eye position as a position of a left eye when the viewpoint is from the left eye, and determines the eye position as a position of a midpoint between the right eye and the left eye when the viewpoint includes both the right eye and the left eye.

8. The image capturing system of claim 1 wherein the gesture capture device determines a size of the gesture, and the target area determination module adjusts a zoom level and a size of the image field-of-view based on the size of the gesture, such that the target vector passes through the image field-of-view.

9. The image capturing system of claim 1 wherein the on-board camera detects an object within the image field-of-view, and the target area determination module adjusts a zoom level and a size of the image field-of-view based on the object detected by the on-board camera, such that the target vector passes through the image field-of-view after the zoom level and the size of the image field-of-view is adjusted.

10. An image capturing method for a vehicle for capturing an image of a target area with an on-board camera disposed on the vehicle, the method comprising: determining whether a gesture performed by an occupant is a predefined gesture for capturing the image; determining a position of the gesture in a three-dimensional space when the gesture is the predefined gesture, wherein the position of the gesture is with respect to a reference point; determining an eye position of the occupant with respect to the reference point; determining a target vector based on the eye position and the position of the gesture, wherein the target vector extends from the eye position towards the position of the gesture; aligning the on-board camera in accordance with the target vector, such that a first target object in the target area pointed by the target vector appears in the image taken by the on board camera; capturing the image with the on-board camera; and storing the image in a memory when the predefined gesture is detected, wherein the memory is a computer readable medium.

11. The image capturing method of claim 10 further comprising: using a display module disposed in the vehicle, displaying the image captured by the on-board camera.

12. The image capturing method of claim 10 further comprising: using a wireless communication module disposed in the vehicle, transmitting the image to a portable device.

13. The image capturing method of claim 10 further comprising, using a wireless communication module disposed in the vehicle, transmitting the image to a data server external of the vehicle.

14. The image capturing method of claim 10 wherein determining the eye position further comprises: determining a viewpoint of the occupant as a right eye, a left eye, or both the right and the left eye; and determining the eye position based on the viewpoint, wherein the eye position is a position of the right eye when the viewpoint is from the right eye, the eye position is a position of the left eye when the viewpoint is from the left eye, and the eye position is a position of a midpoint between the left eye and the right eye when the viewpoint is from both the right eye and the left eye.

15. An image selection system for a vehicle for selecting an image displayed along a plane by a display module based on a predefined gesture performed by an occupant of a vehicle, the system comprising: a gesture capture device determining features of a gesture performed by an occupant, the features including a position of a center of the gesture with respect to a reference point, wherein the gesture is the predefined gesture; an eye tracking device determining a viewpoint of the occupant and an eye position of the occupant based on the viewpoint, wherein the eye position is the position of the viewpoint with respect to the reference point; and a processor operating as a target area determination module, wherein the target area determination module determines a target vector extending from the eye position toward the center of the gesture, and determines a position along the plane at which the target vector intersects the plane; wherein the eye tracking device determines the eye position as a position of a right eye when the viewpoint is from the right eye, determines the eye position as a position of a left eye when the viewpoint is from the left eye, and determines the eye position as a position of a midpoint between the right eye and the left eye when the viewpoint includes both the right eye and the left eye.

16. The image selection system of claim 15 wherein the target area determination module transmits the position to the display module which determines whether the position correlates with the image being displayed.